JimX

Soulja, I still have no idea what you're on about.

Wtf? Tuning the engine makes it able to handle more power?

I second Hills Motorsports. I will never take my car elsewhere unless it's for something they can't do (which isn't likely coz they seem to be able to do anything). I know Croydon are good, but they charge like a wounded bull and they tend to ignore you a lot so they can focus on their big money spinners (ie, big hp guys with lots of cash to throw around). Here are some reasons I like Hills: 1. They did some magic on my front-facing plenum. It was a home-made job and so didn't fit right, so they had to do a lot of work getting it to fit right. If I ever sell it, it'll have to be sold with the manifold attached or else the new owner will have to go through the same stuff again getting it to fit. 2. They bought the wrong intercooler for me, so they gave it to me at cost price. It was a better one than they originally quoted, and it ended up being around $100 extra. (so true price difference would probably be closer to $200). 3. Because of the cooler price difference, the extra hour or so they had to spend on the plenum, and the $80 throttle cable they had to buy (the original didn't reach), and the mesh that one of the guys convinced me to get, the final price was around $400 more than they originally quoted. I didn't have the extra money, so they let me pay it a couple of weeks later. NOTE: The guy that gave me the original quote got into a LOT of trouble from Mark for not pointing out the variables (like potential extra labour, the throttle cable, plus the fact that he talked me into buying the mesh) and ordering the wrong cooler, and he said that they don't ordinarily let people pay them back later. It was only because so much of it was one of the one guy's fault of bad quoting/cooler ordering that they let me do this. I definitely WOULDN'T expect them to let me do this again, and I even said that next time I'll make sure I have a couple of hundred extra bucks handy for any future work they do to avoid hassles on both our parts. 4. By the time I came around to pay them, they had sold my old intercooler for me for $300, so I was only around $100 extra out of pocket and I didn't have the hassle of people coming around to look at it.

I had adjustable bushes put in my Commodore but I never bothered adjusting them. Oh well, it made the car easier to sell If you just want to preserve tyres, then I would go the cheaper bushes. $1150 for the whole arm just to save on tyres seems very counter-productive. You would probably have to keep the car for around 5 years or more before you broke even, assuming you never got any unrepairable punctures.

Soulja, gearbox? Shift kit? What have they got to do with anything? I will give you the benefit of the doubt re: the brakes and assume you are talking about pads only. But you forgot to mention tyres. Lepperfish, you shouldn't have to upgrade your fuel system until you get over 220rwkw or so. So if you get a 500hp turbo and can't afford the fuel system upgrade, just run it on lower boost until you can. EBC does wonders in this regard.

Hippy, you aren't likely to get the blue surrounding colour because you have series 1 headlights which have very thick diffusers. You'll probably need series 2 lights with the clear lenses to get that effect.

I want to re-enable mine too. The person that put the alarm in switched the central locking control over to that instead, which is much more annoying. Instead of waiting until you go over 25kph, it waits 3 minutes and then locks. And if you unlock/lock it again at any point before or after, it (a) won't lock after the 3 minutes if not already done so, and (B) won't unlock the car after you take the key out of the ignition. I am now in the somewhat usual habit of just locking the doors after everyone is in the car and unlocking them when I stop. Unfortunately a lot of the time a n00ber passenger tries to get out before I remember to unlock his door and he/she wonders why they can't get out because they didn't lock the door.

Wax Wizards are your friend. They sell anything worth selling in the paint protecting and polish department. Ring them up, have a talk with them, and see what they have to say. They will recommend different things depending on the condition and age of your paint. They will also give you hints and tips on how to protect your paint. I rang them up the other day having no idea about anything other than I wanted their paint chip repair kit and some good polish, and after speaking with the lady on the other end (I forget her name) I came away with a much better idea on how to look after my paint properly. For example: Don't use cheesecloth to polish it. Don't use cheap Woolies polish (well I wasn't going to anymore anyway). Use a Carnauba wax OVER the polish for extra protection and more shine (I haven't bought any wax yet). etc. I only ordered my stuff yesterday so it should arrive today or tomorrow. I'll put an update in after I give their polish a go (I think it's called Carlack).

No side effect to turbo engines with injector cleaner or metho, because your turbo doesn't touch any of it. The only thing you have to be worried about is changing the octane of your fuel, but in such small doses that's not going to happen.

Ok, 2 things. Firstly it is probably something rubber on steel. Secondly, if it's worse in the wet, that indicates that it is something exposed to the elements so unlikely to be internal parts of your shock absorber (it is possible though, you might just notice it more in the wet). Look for areas with steel and rubber contacting. Off the top of my head I can think of suspension bushes, shock absorber bushes, and the bump stops on top of the springs. Spray anything suspect with some sort of lubricant. I would think WD40 would be ok, but I'm not sure if that's ok to spray on rubber so check with someone more knowledgeable first. There was a spray that a mechanic used to get rid of a squeak in my bike's suspension but I can't remember what it was. I think it was silicone-based.

It's a common misconception that more viscosity=better lubrication. It doesn't. You only need thick oil for a worn engine. Thick oil usually won't hurt a new(er) engine, but it costs you power and economy for no reason. You're not getting any better protection out of thicker oil if your clearances are still tight.

Metho has the added effect of getting rid of any water in your fuel. Could have been running like crap (at least partially) because of water.

Yes, but if you only want to smooth out the power curve and add 15-25rwkw then the S-AFC is a good half-price option. My car already came with a fuel cut defender so that made my choice even easier. The best deal if you're short on cash is to get a S-AFC, save up for a Power FC, then sell the S-AFC to someone in your current position to recoup some of your costs.

How does your engine survive at startup then without any oil pressure? The oil pump on my Torana died once, I drove about a km with the light on, then lost pressure to my valves and it stopped. After I towed it home I replaced the pump and it was as good as new (well, old)

Ye gods, I think I'll just wait for it to work itself loose. Are there any warning signs that your oil pump is falling out? How long after the oil pressure light comes on does the engine kill itself? You'd also have to be worried about a hot turbo cooking itself with an instant shut-down of the engine if you've been driving it hard.

How long does it take with no oil pressure to kill the engine? I'm going to keep a closer eye on my gauge now, and check the pump bolts in my upcoming service. Just as soon as someone tells me where the oil pump is

You should be able to use the cut out bit as a source of plastic for a plastic welder to patch them up again. I've never seen one patched up, the couple I have seen with the front section removed just have some ugly square holes left over. Also, where do you put your plate after you do this? I hate plates that are off to one side, reminds me of a bus or army vehicle or something. I'm thinking it would look ok if suspended from the top section of the front (low profile plate only). It would still interrupt air flow a bit, but not nearly as much as the whole crosspiece does.

Ditto for me, the PowerFC is one of the next things I want to get for my car, just after the dump pipe and fuel pump installation (I already have the pump). But it won't be for a long time, insurance is due soon and then rego by the time I recover from that. I'm also thinking I'd like some form of tracking installed before any of the above. Maybe next year.

Oil staying clean means that it is not doing its job properly. You want your oil to go dark fairly quickly because that means it is absorbing all the crap that your engine produces. If it's not in your oil it's grinding away at the internals of your engine! I look at the very thin edges of the oil on the dipstick to tell if other cars' oils have become saturated with contaminants or not. On my cars it's always got a slight golden hue on the edge. Some cars overdue for a change are black right to the edge. While you still have a bit of gold in it that means it's still got enough cleaning properties in it.

Also keep in mind that the power steering pump is not a highly stressed item like a gearbox or engine. You could get away without flushing it and just removing as much oil as you can through a syphon and then refilling.

Yeah, go the FMIC. I don't yet have a PowerFC, but I've got a 3" exhaust, 600x300 fmic, front-facing plenum, and T04 450hp turbo. I've got an S-AFC to help smooth it out, but I wouldn't trade any of the above items except the S-AFC for a PowerFC. For me, the PowerFC is in the "I would love to have one but need the $2000 for too many other things first" categories.

I think you have to syphon the oil out of the power steering pump. Or pull it off completely and tip it upside down. When does it need to be serviced anyway? At 100k km service?

The first number is the most important. You want it to be no higher than 10, so that the oil circulates quickly on startup. Fortunately almost all good synthetic oils are from 0W to 10W so you shouldn't have a problem there. I am currently using Castrol Formula R 10W-60, and I think the second viscosity number is too high. My oil pressure is good (a little over halfway when warm), but I think the viscosity is overkill and is only hurting my power and economy. Therefore on my next change I am going to use 5W-30 and see how that goes. The Castrol 10W-60 is still good stuff, and you might need to use it if your engine is a bit worn and burning/leaking a bit of oil. I'm not using any at all which is why I'm going to switch to the 5W-30, but as my engine wears out over time I will switch back to it. Hopefully not for another 100 000km or more Oh, and definitely don't use mineral oil. Use a full synthetic (preferable) or a semi synth at the very least. Mineral oils break down too quickly. Change the oil every 5000km or sooner and you should be ok with a semi synth. My preference is still with a full synth though (still with 5000km oil dumps).

I had a look in my owner's book and I can't find the oil grade I'm supposed to be using. Does anyone know if it's actually hidden in there somewhere? (JPNZ one). If not, does anyone have a link for a definitive source on what grade oil it should be using? In my motorcycle manual, it has varying different grades of oil depending on what temperature the air is in. The 5W-30 oil seemed to only be ok in climates under 30 degrees Celsius.

I'm going to try Castrol 5W-30 on my next service. The pistons on a Skyline are smaller than those on the SR20 so in theory any oil that's good enough for them should also be good enough for the Skyline. It depends on the condition of your engine. If yours is burning any oil then you will need a thicker grade than 30. Mine isn't using a single drop (currently 10W-60) which is why I'm going to try the 5W-30. Whatever you get, make sure it's synthetic. Do a search on "oil myths" in Google, the first 2 results have some interesting reading.